Trust, but verify

The council will need to police this

April 25, 2012

Aldermen Proco “Joe” Moreno, from left, Bob Fioretti, Pat Dowell and William Burns listen as Ald. Scott Waguespack speaks against Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan for a city infrastructure trust. The City Council passed the plan Tuesday, but its responsibility does not end there. (Nancy Stone, Chicago Tribune photo)

Though they had visions of the great parking meter debacle dancing in their heads, Chicago aldermen on Tuesday easily approved Mayor Rahm Emanuel's proposal for a wholly new apparatus to raise investments and drive infrastructure improvements in the city. Chalk up the 41-7 vote to the mayor's willingness to meet some demands from aldermen, his zeal to twist some arms for his ambitious proposal ... and a lot of aldermanic trust in the Trust.

The city's inspector general, a number of aldermen and this page wanted an ordinance that would be heavier on transparency and would guarantee that every project proposed by the trust would go to a City Council vote. The ordinance as passed doesn't include those protections.

So what happens next? A five-member board will be established, its members selected by the mayor. The first project will be a $200 million construction program to make city buildings more energy efficient. The city says "some of the world's largest financing institutions have sent letters of interest totaling more than $1.7 billion for potential projects."

The trust will operate like a city department with the board overseeing the investments, each project's day-to-day operations, and its repayment schedule. Remember: The money from private investors to build is a loan, not a gift. The firms will recoup their costs plus profit.

Here are key promises from the mayor's office to watch:

• The city's ethics ordinance will apply to the trust. The trust is a quasi city agency, so its appointees will file personal financial disclosure forms under the city's ethics code. We'll see if that's enough to avoid potential conflicts of interest between trust investors and trust board members.

• The inspector general will have jurisdiction over city-related activities of the trust. "By way of example, if there is evidence pointing to a misuse of city funds or other city assets by the trust, the (inspector general) will have jurisdiction. If there is evidence of misconduct in a city program that involves financing by the trust, the (inspector general) will have jurisdiction over that program," according to an opinion issued by the corporation counsel's office.

Those powers of the inspector general, though, do not extend to sister agencies, such as the Chicago Transit Authority, Chicago Housing Authority, public schools or Park District. Several aldermen tried to introduce a substitute ordinance that would give the city greater control over trust-backed projects for those governments, but they were voted down. The mayor's office says the council by law cannot interfere with the decisions of separate taxing bodies.

However, several City Council members who supported Emanuel's ordinance said they expect sister agencies who tap into the trust to appear before council committees to answer questions or address problems, should they arise. Aldermen, use whatever power you have to police these projects.

• The trust will follow the Illinois Freedom of Information Act and Open Meetings Act, and provide "public access to books, records, minutes and documents" and "public notice of its meetings."

The ordinance has grown stronger through debate, and that was good to see. The mayor did incorporate several key suggestions from aldermen and outside groups.

But this program does invest enormous power in the mayor and his appointees to the trust and the sister agencies. It will be up to the aldermen, and the rest of the city, to make sure those key promises are kept, to provide the checks and balances.